Conference on Green Norms for Small Hydro Power

In the last decade installation of Small Hydro Power (SHP) has increased manifolds in the country. As of March 2013, there are around 1000 SHP plants having an installed capacity of more than 3600 MW. MNRE plans to add 2100 MW installed capacity in the 12th five year plan period.

Though SHP has lower environmental impacts compared to fossil fuels, they do have high impacts if installed in ecologically sensitive areas. It is for this reason that in many countries, some sort of green norms are put in place during planning, construction and operations of SHP plants. India, however, has not yet mandated any significant green norms for the SHP sector.

To discuss this and other issues, we are organising half a day conference on “Green Norms for Small Hydro Power”. We are pleased to invite you to attend this conference.

The meeting will discuss the need for creating safeguards to avoid negative environmental and social impacts of SHP. We are inviting academicians, government officials, private entrepreneurs and NGOs from across the state of Uttarakhand to initiate this very important discussion.

As a basis for the discussion CSE will launch its report on the status and possible green norms for small hydro power.